To hell in a hand basket?

[Barklessdog]

Where are you guys putting your money in that live in the US?

It does not seem to be a bright future for the US and the world in the next 10-20 years. How are going to pay for a War we can't afford, or afford to leave, natural disaster after disaster, health care that is so costly and I live of fear of going to the doctor as they hold anything you go in for down the road to deny your claims. I got the feeling they did not want to insure me because of my age (48).

I had to go through 6 months of tests, denied several times for things I went to the doctor for years ago, even though my doctor says I am perfectly heathy for my age. They finally gave me a policy at double the cost!

Our company spends over $3,000 a month on health insurance for two families and it just keeps going up every year. It is by far the highest expense our company faces. We can't hire full time people because we can't afford taking on their health insurance. Therefore we can't grow like we would wanted to.

We had an old investor for our company (who past away), would always tell us the depression's coming, no country can be on top forever. You guys have not lived through a depression (he did).

Nothing is forever and there is always change, both for good & bad. I often think one should have a plan for the new world, both financially and for my retirement. I sure as heck a not moving to California or to Arizona for retirement, like some people I know have.

They were showing how they are just plain out of water out west, where extreme high temperatures & drought are driving farmers to leave their land.

So what are you guys plans, if you even have one, or is day to day survival you're only concern?

[gweimer]

I've got an investment manager who did really well by my father, and I'm sticking with them.  They're unaffiliated, and really objective.  They even do scenario forecasting, like "what will happen to the dollar if war breaks out in ?"  Over the past six months, they've stayed pretty even on my investments, and only in the past couple days did I see a noticeable drop.
One thing I mentioned to them was putting about 5% in Chinese manufacturing.  My account rep said the bubble may be over, but we might be good for a year there.

[Barklessdog]

That's what I hear as well, foreign investments and foreign currency CD's or selling the US short on the stock market. There is money to be had on misfortune.

[chromium]

Where are you guys putting your money in that live in the US?

Elsewhere.  Everything I was invested in was in a nosedive, so emerging markets looked like a better place to be.  

"the global economy—after a remarkable five-year period in which almost every major economy has been growing in concert—is showing signs of what economists call "decoupling." What decoupling means is this: even as the globe's economic engine, the United States, has stalled, optimists believe the train cars it has been pulling for the last several decades—especially emerging markets like India and China—may finally be able to chug along under their own power."

Those investments have been iffy too, but they did help stop the bleeding, and grow a bit.  I'm not a finance/economics type of guy, so this has been hard for me.  I never paid so much attention to this stuff before, but you have to now out of necessity.

One of our neighbors just sold their place for ~$200K under what comps were selling for just 1-2 years ago - just to get out from under it.  We've been very deliberate over the years about our savings, home purchases, driving older (paid for) cars, keeping minimal debt, etc... - so that has helped during these times.  I am worried about the future - retirement, kids college.  The momentum thru investments has crawled to a snails pace.

[angrymatt]

Buy guns.  Lots of guns.  Tear chunks of my car off and attach guns.  Stockpile cans of beans.

[gweimer]

For the first time in my life, I'm completely debt free, and I make decent money.  I was planning on retiring in a couple years, but that could change between now and then.  I just don't have the confidence that what I have will grow enough to support me in retirement. 

[chromium]

I'm completely debt free

Now that's the place to be!  When we were first time homebuyers, we knew what we could comfortably afford on housing costs.  I was floored to find out how much a lender would actually give us.  Were they insane?!  If we had followed their lead, we would have literally been living for our mortgage.  That combined with the absurd real-estate bubble (luckily bought this place before that - guess we are going to be here a while), all those ARMs and interest-only loans, the war... - I'm not suprised at all that our country is in this position now.

[Barklessdog]

We have always lived under our means/income vs over extending yourself on purchases, that was anotherthing our investor taught us. Don't over extend yourself. We also try to pay off our credit cards monthly. Our house will be payed for in four years as my son starts college this fall. Just as we have the house payed for our daughter starts college.

We pay cash for our cars and drive them till they die. London was our only "big vacation" we have been on. Great timing too, with the dollar being worth 50% of the pound.

Another thing is when ever we get a lump of cash we try not to spend it. Another thing our investor taught us was it takes money to make money. It's surprising how much just simple interest adds up on a large chunck of money.

Our business is the same way. The more money we make the less taxes we pay. Big deductions don't kick in till your profit mode.

[gweimer]

We weren't always in good shape, and even trying to live within your means doesn't always work.  We were getting by when my wife got sick.  The loss of income was really hard.  At the same time, botched paperwork at the closing of our townhouse screwed up the tax bill.  We never got it.  When we finally started to get it straightened out, my mortgage company (and in breach of the contract terms, mind you) had paid a $3000 property tax back payment without notifying me.  They put me on a forced one year repayment (I had already worked out a 2 year plan with the county auditor), and that shot my house payment up nearly double.

We lost the house to foreclosure, and ended up filing Ch. 13 bankruptcy.   Those were a hard few years.  We're debt free now, but only because of that.  And there was no government sympathy 3 years ago like they seem to be having now.  No bail out plan for us.  We knew it was risky going in (our mortgage broker went under federal indictment a year later), but the numbers worked - as long as NOTHING WENT WRONG.  It did.

[angrymatt]

I was kidding about the guns.  The truth is I am working hard on my debt right now, and I speculate that I will have it paid off in around two years (credit cards, short term high interest Zebrabird loans, and student loans).  Being in the military, my ultimate future is so unknown that I haven't tried to purchase a house yet.  The good thing is if I can keep my ass out of trouble for the next ten years I get a pretty good retirement.